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51 JOYCE, James. Pomes Penyeach. Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1927 Rare presentation copy inscribed by Sylvia Beach First edition, first impression, rare presentation copy of this small collection of Joyce’s poems, inscribed by the publisher Sylvia Beach on the half-title, “for George Kennedy with best wishes from Sylvia Beach, Paris June 27 1933”. We have never encountered, nor can trace in any auction record, another copy of Pomes Penyeach inscribed by Beach – this copy is recorded as having appeared at Sotheby’s 24 July 1980, at which point it was already in this binding. This copy has a Byzantine Hollywood provenance: George Kennedy was the private secretary of Hollywood mogul Billy Wilkerson (1890–1962). He has inscribed the book onward in the 1960s to “Mike Connolly, Joycean of Joyceans – scholar of scholars”. Connolly (1913–1966) was a longtime journalist at Wilkerson’s Hollywood Reporter , who reportedly “daydreamed about . . . writing a great novel a la James Joyce, or even writing a biography of Joyce” (Holley, p. 138). The book seems to have passed back to Kennedy after Connolly’s death, as he has inscribed it in 1969 to his godson W.R. Wilkerson, the son of his old employer, who mentions the gift of this book on his 18th birthday in the biography of his father ( Hollywood Godfather: The Life and Crimes of Billy Wilkerson , 2018). It seems likely the binding was executed for W. R. Wilkinson junior. Duodecimo. Original pale green paper-covered boards, covers lettered in dark green. With the errata slip tipped to final leaf. Sewn into a later blue full morocco binding, titles gilt to spine and armorial crest to front. With the errata slip tipped in at the rear. Rebacked and sewn into later leather binding, some toning around board edges, clean
within, good condition. ¶ Slocum and Cahoon A24. Val Holley, Mike Connolly and the Manly Art of Hollywood Gossip , 2003. £6,500 [153804] 52 JOYCE, James. Anna Livia Plurabelle. New York: Crosby Gaige, 1928 Roger Senhouse’s copy First edition, first printing, signed limited issue, number 404 of 800 copies signed by the author, preceding the UK edition by two years. Anna Livia Plurabelle is an early published chapter from Joyce’s famous “work in progress” that would eventually become Finnegans Wake . This is an unusually fresh copy, and has the ownership inscription of Roger Senhouse, dated 1930, in pencil to the front free endpaper. Senhouse (1899–1970) was a writer and publisher association with the Bloomsbury Group, the sometime lover of Lytton Strachey, the translator of Colette, and from 1935 the co-owner of Secker & Warburg publishing house, which published Orwell’s Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four . Published in America, contemporary association copies of Anna Livia Plurabelle that tie it back in to the European literary scene are not often encountered. Duodecimo. Original brown cloth, titles and decoration to spine in gilt, triangle device to front cover in gilt, triple rule and triangle patterned frame blocked in blind to covers, top edge gilt, fore edge untrimmed. Discreet stamp “N. M. Tyrrell & Co., Toronto” to front free endpaper. An exceedingly fresh copy, minimal rubbing to ends and tips, with the gilt very bright, small abrasion to limitation and facing page perhaps a production fault, otherwise clean within, and entirely sound. ¶ Slocum & Cahoon A32. £5,000 [153767]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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